THE Irish Colours FOLDED, OR THE Irish Roman-Catholick's Reply  
To the (pretended) English Protestant's Answer To the Letter desiring a just and merciful regard of the Roman Catholics of Ireland.  
(Which Answer is entitled The Irish Colours Displayed.)  
Addressed (As that Answer and Letter have been) To his Grace The Lord Duke of ORMOND, Lord Lieutenant General, and General Governor of that KINGDOM.  
Vince in bono malum.  
London: Printed in the Year 1662.   

My Lord,  
IT could hardly be imagined, that the Letter which I presented to your Grace, and which I published of late, should have raised so great a storm against me for no other reason then that I begged your Grace's favour in behalf of my distressed Country, and implored the performance of public Faith, showing the mischiefs that have followed the breach of it. This is done in the dark by an impudent assertor of strange positions. But whoever he be, certainly his passion and immoderation speaks him ignorant of the condition of the present Times, of the actions of former Ages, and, above all, to be a mere stranger to the heroic disposition of CHARLES the Second, and utterly to forget that if it were in your Grace 's nature to entrench, for conveniencies sake in the least measure, upon the honour of your Master, or to have form yourself, even by connivance, to a dexterous compliance with those different parties, that made it their design to ruin Monarchy, you would indeed as to the quiet and security of your person, the temporary improvement of your interest, have floated calmly on the top of every bilow raised by the tempest of those evil Times. But in so doing, your Grace would have left such a Monument to your posterity, as you had not received from your Ancestors, and such as (although the fate of the times had excused it in others) was unpardonable in the House of Ormond.  
In truth, I think there is somewhat more in the Letter, that tends to move pity, and to implore Justice (which I conceive to be the scope of it) than the Reader will think well paid with that brass penny in the heap of rubbish. But there are slights in all Arts. And this of the Answerers puts me in mind how the Lord Chancellor Bolton was wont to tell that a witty Lawyer coming before him, and finding himself pressed with a throng of Arguments, whereof many were unanswerable, he selected the slightest, alleging that those only were of moment; but as to the rest, he would not give his Lordship the trouble of dwelling upon the refutation of such impertinencies.  
But it being not my intent to perplex so weighty a matter, by descending after a Logical manner, to the particular defects in the Answer, I shall endeavour to keep myself, as near as I can, within those Limits which the Answerers' passion and immoderation have made him walk in: and to show how amongst all his considerations, he minds those things lest on which he should have bestowed the most solid reflections.  
He that discourses of settling a Kingdom under the Government of its natural Prince in peace and security, should first consider that a King is Father of his people, and that they are a portion of mankind, whereof no one is exempt from Rebellion against Heaven; that the bowels of this King's paternal love, in imitation of God, whose Vicegerent he is, have compassion for the frailties of his Subjects, and mercy for their greatest crimes. The eldest on might repine at the favour done his prodigal brother, but his father made him a feast. Which shows that the affection of Princes to their Subjects in general, moves in another Orb than ours to one another. Our Interest may make us snarll; but our King is our Common Father.  
The want of duly weighing this principle, and the impossibility in a Prince to divest himself of this  and natural property of being a Father, hath afforded the Answerer liberty to advance some positions, that (without any just offence, I may say,) do not speak him either a charitable Person, or a prudent Statesman.  
The Answerer gives your Grace an account of a word or a fear which just then fell from him, and in truth the word bears in itself very evident marks that it was precipitat; but how the fear could express itself in that language, I know not. However your Grace will conceive it a sad and severe position, that this contention between the two parties in Ireland will never have an end. And it is no wonder your Grace should startle at it, if you did not consider that the same God, who makes the much opposite qualities of the Elements agree for the conservation of the mixed, who depressed our King to raise him higher, and led him by the hand of his Providence to the Throne of his Ancestors, without other supports then a sense of their duty in his Subjects, hath still a power left him to put an end to the contentions of the two parties in Ireland, and that not by the ways of his omnipotent will or miraculous actings, but by his ordinary concurrence by secondary Causes. For if His majesty's clemency could make up so huge a breach as lay open before him by the Murder of His Father, ought we not to hope that he may be imitated by his Subjects in laying aside that everlasting contention to which the Answerer would condemn them? Shall no length of time be allowed to set limits to the vengeance this Answerer would have them to expect the one of the other? The Britain's, the Danes, the Saxons, and the Normans are now so incorporated in England, as the memory of all distinction is lost amongst them. Yet much blood hath been drawn in their Contests, and the Actions of particular Men of each of those Nations have been such, as they may be justly styled Barbarous and Inhuman.  
Your Grace knows with what horror the Irish Nation looks upon those Massacres and Murders in the North, committed in the beginning of the Rebellion by the Rascal multitude upon their innocent, unwarned, and unprovided Neighbours; but the number of Two hundred thousand, (although this Writer comes short One hundred thousand in his account of what the Convention-Commissioners gave up to His Majesty in their Answer to the Irish Agents) is so exorbitantly vast, that a stranger who finds the dimensions of Ireland in the Map, and understands this certain truth, That there were then in Ireland One hundred Natives for each person; these men would pass under the notion of an English man, will readily conclude, That the whole Ireland is but one City so thronged with Inhabitants, as men cannot walk in the Streets unjustled.  
There is no man who hath a greater detestation for those foul crimes than I have. And yet after exact enquiry, I dare aver there have been more Patritians and Knights of Rome murdered in the Conflicts and Proscriptions between Scylla and Marius, within the Walls of the City, then perished by those infamous Massacres throughout Ireland, In the first two months of the Rebellion. And that although the Streets were covered with Roman Carcases, and the Kennels ran Blood, yet a few years buried those Animosities, and both Factions lived after, as peaceably as became Citizens that paid Obedience to one and the same Emperor. We read, that the Huguenots of France, who under Francis the Second conspired against the Government, and then, and in the Reign of several Kings after, were as bitterly bend against the Roman Catholics, as the Ancient Gawls were against Cesar, and where they had power left to posterity strange Monuments of their Rage and Cruelty; Yet those so divided Affections are so now composed, as both contend who shall best serve their Prince, and the different Persuasion in Religion is so far from lessening the French Kings trust in men of Merit, that Marshal Turein very deservingly commands in Chief the Military Power of France.  
John of Leyden for the short time of his reign had a numerous party, that laid about them as barbarously and as inhumanely as men could do. Yet many of them were Inhabitants of that City in Germany, where Peace was so successfully treated between the Empire and Sweden, and between Spain and Holland: So quiet was that place and people, then grown, that had been once so miserably distracted.  
Even the Catalonians, who not many years since, transferred the Dominion over them to a Foreign Prince, That murdered their Viceroy, that imbrued their hands in the blood of the Spanish Council, and all the Spaniards that came in their way, and perpetrated such villainies as we cannot reach to express by calling them Barbarous and Inhuman: Yet His Catholic Majesty hath satisfied His Justice with the punishment of the Principal Incendiaries in tha● Revolt & having brought the people back to a due sense of their Obedience, the Spaniards and they fit down as amicably, and with as general confidence, the one in the other, as they did at any time before. The Irish go further, and out of desire to have the Grounds of future Animosities, utterly removed by the exemplar Chastisement of the most Criminal, they have often moved, that no man on either side may be exempt from satisfying the Law for any foul Murder.  
Now Your Grace, who is better able to call to mind Thousands of Examples, evidencing the little reason men have to despair of the perfect settlement of the most discomposed States, and of the firm Union of different Affections, will doubtless conceive that to say, The Contention between the two parties in Ireland, will never have an end, is an Assertion full of diffidence in God's providence, and full of ignorance of what hath succeeded in this, and in former ages, upon the like occasion.  
But that Your Grace may observe, that the Grounds whereupon this Gentleman establisheth his Prediction, are as vain and frivolous, as the Prediction itself is temerarious and imprudent; I shall (without search into the Aspect of the Planets, or that of sullying of the Moon, or influencing (as he speaks) that climate) descend to the particulars of what he considers in the Case.  
And first, he unluckily lays that for a Foundation which either must restrain all Princes from making new acquisitions; or (if they pursue his Politic Precepts) must turn the Territories they have acquired by any pretence of Conquest, into a desolate Wilderness; there being no other mean, in this new doctrine, to secure what they have once gained by the just title of lawful Arms. Had the Romans, who for Six hundred years could not enlarge their Territory beyond the Bounds of Italy, made this their Principle, they must have spent more time in peopling then in conquering that the Seat of their Empire.  
Your Grace knows, that the Irish for a long time after the first Colony of Englishmen was planted in Ireland, were not only styled, but were actually enemies to those that strove to prevail over them. And certainly that is so Natural a Passion, as Beasts partake with man in it: For if the Invaded and the Invader should concur, as to the end of the work, what needed Contention? Yet Your Grace's famous Ancestors that acted a principal part in spreading the Dominion of the Crown of England over those Irish Enemies, were (if our Histories deceive us not) powerfully and faithfully assisted by those whom they had not long before subdued. And the self-fame men that sharply contended against them, were instrumental in acquiring them fame, and extending the Bounds of the English Government.  
His two next considerations concern the first English Colony and their Descendants, until the Reign of Henry the Eight. Who without all doubt, were better versed in the knowledge of those after-drops that commonly follow the storm of Force and Invasion, than not to expect and prepare themselves for those effects that for some time do attend the resentment of an overmastered people. But it is strange, that a man who would establish a new and an unusual method of Policy, did not consider, that when a Nation is once generally compelled to submit to the commands of the prevailing Invader, all after Commotions do rather fix then unsettle the Government.  
But methinks I hear him say, That this last Rebellion was no after-drop, but an universal deluge. And this assertion is thus far true, That the Laws having defined it Rebellion to raise Arms against an Authority established by the King, this cannot be denied to have been a Rebellion, the extent whereof, although it were not universal, yet it spread itself into the far greater part of the Kingdom. But all  men distinguish between the first Conspirators (that were a handful of Harebrained fellows of broken fortunes, and desperate resolutions, who upon the first noise of the extirpation of their Nation, and their Religion, threatened to be executed by the Ministry of a Scotish Army, took up Arms, and made the Crime of Rebellion more horrid by the foul actions, with which the rude multitude did asperse it) and the Noblemen and Gentry, with the rest of the Roman Catholics: who being sat in Parliament at Dublin, had application made to them by those Rebels to mediate for redress of their Grievances, and offered to continue their sitting in order to their repressing of them; but were prorogued (as some do not spare to say) of Design to increase the Confusion. Which, I am sure, was the success of that prorogation. And I have heard a shrewd Argument alleged to prove, that such was the intention of the Lords Justices, and those of the then Council who favoured the party opposing the King in England. The truth where of none knows better than Your Grace, who made offer at the Council Board to raise Ten thousand men. With which power, being assisted by the Lords Justices, You undertook to quell those Northern Rebels, and to settle the Peace of the Kingdom. But this being not accepted, and there appearing daily greater symptoms of the aversion to the ways of our late King of ever blessed memory, the Confederate Catholics then took upon them for their natural defence (as they alleged) a Government in opposition to the Lords Justices: Whose Authority over them, having not then been revoked by His Majesty, they could not have declined, nor have set up any other of their own without His Majesty's Commission, nor have entered into such Confederacy without being guilty of Rebellion. But for this, and crimes of this nature, Your Grace hath conveyed unto them His Majesty's Mercy in Articles of Peace. Whereof, because they demand the benefit, they are exposed to the odium of every person that detains any part of their Estates, by what title soever. Can Your Grace but remove this incompatibility between men's possessions, there would a word and a hope, as suddenly fall from this Gentleman, that the Contention between the two parties in Ireland might have an end to morrow.  
And now in my turn the Gentleman will give me leave to consider, That the old English, the Posterity of that English Colony first planted in Ireland, are more concerned in his reflections, than those in whose favour he writes. For if the greatness of Estates, that have been or may hereafter be conferred, must in his opinion foment irreconciliable animosities, there can no hope be left, that they and the ancient Irish can ever agree, since it is evident those English have been masters of the far greater part of their Country. What discovery the Articles of Forty eight make of their resolution in cold blood, to unravel the settlement of ages past, I cannot conceive: Nothing appears to me in them which trenches upon His Majesty's Prerogative; nor the right which a Subject may claim to his Inheritance. The Roman Catholics do not by those Articles engross the places of profit, honour, and trust to themselves, nor impose the exercise of their Religion upon any man of a different persuasion.  
When this Gentleman considered the dissimilitude of Customs, Manners, Habit, and Language, between the English and the Irish, I expected he would have laid before Your Grace, (who are to direct the Government of Ireland) the ways how to invite, or enforce the ruder sort to conform themselves in all those particulars to the rules of civility of the English. But Your Grace will of yourself find better ways, and more for His Majesty's advantage, then by dispeopling the Kingdom, or beggering the people, to communicate this happiness unto them. Which might have been introduced long since, if some former Governors had not made it their studies rather to plant their Estates, then cultivate their minds.  
As for the reflection which he makes upon the manner of celebrating of Funerals with howl, which indeed is barbarous (although many in Poland and other places in the continent do still continue that savage custom) I hope your Grace, without sending the Natives to the Barbadoss, or forcing them to such indigence as may compel them to cry for Alms, will not only supress the Ditty, if any such be used, but ever abrogate the Tune.  
And for the consideration which he raises from the common conversation of the vulgar, and their brawlings: the Petty Constables, and the Stocks in every Parish, without extirpating the Nation (for his assertion, That the contention between the two parties in Ireland will never cease, always tends to that) will ease your Grace from any great affright of a disturbance in the Government, by reason of the terms of malice, suspicion, and contempt; yea in case they did upbraid each other with as much acrimony, as if they were bred under the discipline of the Oyster-wives at Billingsgate.  
What he next adds, seems to have more weight in it: and I confess it will be worthy your Grace's care, not only to bring the common Irish to civility, which of itself will rectify any supine ignorance they may be guilty of in order to their incapableness of distinguishing what concerns the Spiritual, what the Temporal Jurisdiction; but to give encouragement to the Roman Catholic Clergy of Ireland, to infuse into the people a true sense of the Catholic Doctrine, contained in their humble Remonstrance, Acknowledgement, Protestation and Petition, Printed at London the third of February 1661. But this Gentleman must give me leave to say, that your Grace, who knows aswell as any man living, the temper and inclination of that people, cannot be of that opinion, that the most vulgar among them is persuaded, That the Kingdom of Ireland lawfully belongs to the King of Spain. Nay, how little influence the King of Spain, or the Pope had upon them when the Peace was concluded, your Grace best knows, who hath found by experience, that notwithstanding the Nuntios Excommunication, the most considerable parts of the Nation, made way for his majesty's Government over the Kingdom, and received your Grace, who was entrusted with his Majesty's authority: and notwithstanding that senseless excommunication fulminated by the Prelates at James Town, continued firm in their adherence to the Peace, which by your Grace was conveyed unto them from his Majesty, and in their obedience to his majesty's authority, which upon your leaving the Kingdom, your Grace did transfer to the Marquis of Clanrickard.  
That which the writer of that answer considers next, and endeavours to advance for the end he aims at (which is the extirpation of the Nation) is the most uncharitable, the most unnatural, and the most ignoble argument that could fall from the Pen of any man that professed a regard of Conscience or Honour: And questionless did proceed from some person, that having himself for his conveniency, and the good of his interest, sacrificed his duty to his King, when God was pleased in some small measure to overbalance the rights of the Crown, with the power of his prevailing enemies, wonders why all men should not be so wise as to relinquish for the same ends, all Patriotship and sense of their declining Country. But he little knows how unfit a person he hath chosen to be entertained with so unworthy a suggestion. For if your Grace, in the Case of the Earl of Strafford, barely upon the score of friendship, is said to have been pleased to answer a person of quality, who laid before you the great hazard you run in, speaking so freely of that great man's merit, and justifying his innocence, at a time when the Parliament of England was so highly incensed against him, That if his head were upon the block, you would profess him your friend: can this writer hope that your Grace, who so early in your youth cherished a particular friendship with so much courage and gallantry, will not think it a base and abject part in the few of the Nobility and Gentry now in the City of London, to content themselves with saving their own stake, and leave stickling in the patronage and defence of their common Country? But however they may be lessened in the Gentleman's value, for performing this, which is an indispensable duty they own to their Country, and to those that justly may claim benefit of the peace in it; yet they could not (in my opinion) have otherwise prevented the clamour of all men of honour, nay of all mankind against them.  
Lastly, He considers that this enmity, which he calls implacable, of the Irish to the English, springs from the same root with that of all other subjected people to their Conquerors, and gathers for proof thereof the mischief befallen the Roman Citizens in the lesser Asia, on the French in Sicily, and on the Danes in England; and yet forbears to mind your Grace that the Normans were Conquerors as well as they, and have to this day preserved their acquisitions in England, as the English have done in Ireland since their first descent in that Kingdom, by those means which have made the work lasting, without breaking for conveniencies sake, those limits which Mercy, Justice, and Honour, puts to all humane actions. Herein the carriage of your Grace's famous Ancestors, will better instruct you then the Politics of any interested person. And your Grace having conformed yourself to the rules prescribed by Mercy, Justice, and Honour, what need the balancing interests between English and Irish, or boying up either of them? The Country must at length give denomination to all that inhabit it: and the posteriry of those that proclaim loudly the English interest, must within an age, admit themselves to be called Irish as well as the Descendants from the first Colony of English planted in Ireland.  
Doubtless your Grace's first care will be to secure his majesty's interest in that Kingdom, and to provide that nothing remain, which under the title of diversity of interests, may prevent all men's affections from meeting in the centre of his Majesty's service. And your next will be to convey to succeeding ages, the blessings of that peace, which his Majesty after so evil times, and so many sufferings hath given his three Kingdoms.  
And now your Grace will give me leave to consider, that this man of separation, in flat opposition to his Majesty's paternal and prudent desire, so frequently and so fully expressed in his Letters, in his Proclamations, in his Discourses, both public and private, to have all seeds of animosities utterly extinguished, employs his talon wholly in making himself the Trumpet of men's animosities: and lest, time should mitigate them, he concludes them everlasting. But your Grace hath more reverence for things recommended with that earnestness to his people by your great Master, then to countenance what he prohibits, or to favour those uncharitable requests that oppose his commands.  
My Lord, It shall suffice me instead of all vindication, that I persuade myself your Grace believes that I am in my nature as averse from cogging or clawing, as the Letter in itself, is far from expressing any such humour in me. But men that have an inclination to be bitter rather than fail of exercising their faculty, will create themselves a subject. And he that takes the Nations hope, to be delivered by your Grace, for a compliment, knows little of the interest you have in them, and of the affection they bear you.  
Now, without contending in a case so little disputable whose you are, I shall conjure your Grace, not by his Majesty's favour, and the ways to preserve it; not by the means to prefer your children, and to increase your fortune; nor by those other politic considerations held forth by the Writer of that answer: but by the mercy and honour of his Majesty; by the nobleness of your own nature; by the constancy of the Nation in their sufferings under your Grace's command at home, and their wander in waiting on his Majesty's fortunes abroad; by the memory of your Ancestors that have been such haters of oppression, as petty Freeholders have held for many descents and still do enjoy, some two, some four Acres, and others more or less, in the midst of your demesnes, untouched by them, or by you, in so long a tract of time: by these I conjure your Grace so to temper conveniency, as it may not overthrow his majesty's promise, and so to be friend the interest of the pretenders, as, the proprietors may receive the benefit of his Majesty's mercy extended to them in Articles of Peace.  
As to those contests that consist of recriminations, I desire never to engage in them. But this Writer must not therefore think he may be at liberty to fill the ears of his Reader, with the vast sound of two hundred thousand, and enlarge the horror of the action, by suppressing the truth, and adding cyphers to enlarge the number. And truly had this Writer forborn in so despicable and supercilious a manner to spurn at the Nation, by saying, That the Birds, no not the Flies contributed less to his Majesty's Restauration then the Roman Catholics in Ireland, I should not have put him in mind that the Duke of Albemarle found not a concurrence so general (I mean in the Army) (for the people of England, both Protestant and Catholic, opened their hearts in prayers to God and their arms to receive him) as he owes not the glorious success of his Actions more to the dexterity of his conduct, than the strength of his party. And as to that general concurrence in Ireland, Ludlow and Sir Hardress Waller may tell him how difficult the work had been, but that they were taken napping. No man will say that an unarmed people, disposed throughout the Goals of the Kingdom upon every rumour that was spread of any attempt to be made by his Majesty for recovery of his right, could have contributed other then by their prayers to his Majesty's Restauration. And in truth it is some mark of Ingenuity in this Writer, that he endeavours not to persuade us that the Irish did not so much as pray for the Restauration of his Majesty. And no Church will deny that prayers are always good, and sometimes effectual.  
I do not repine at the Act of Indemnity, granted by the King. And certain I am that his Majesty, whose bowels of mercy could begin at that end, will in his own good time enlarge it to all his Subjects of Ireland. And I hope that when it is better understood in what nature the Roman Catholics depend upon the Pope, there will be no cause to reproach them for their tenets in Religion, although they modestly refuse to invest in his Majesty a power of administering the Sacraments, which this zealous Gentleman, by his dependence upon his Majesty in all Ecclesiastical matters, acknowledges to be in him.  
Although the Writer in his next Paragraph, pursuing his ordinary method of railing wittyries, speaks of a show of adherence to the King, which was the next covert they shrunk under for shelter; yet I must confess it will be hard to persuade me that the best and most natural shelter for a Subject fallen from his obedience, is not the protection of his Sovereign, and the remission of his crimes. And I cannot but say that the world would be much deceived in that opinion they conceive of your wisdom, if your Grace had suffered yourself to be deluded by a show of the Irish adhering to the King. Perhaps they fought and were killed in a dream, and that the dints the Bullets made in your Armour, while your Grace having acted all the parts of a General, exposed yourself as a common soldier to prevent the defeat at Rathmines, were the bitings of the Irish Flies, whereof the Writer makes mention. Your Grace best knows, in defence of whose cause you led that Army. And I dare swear Sir William Vaughan, Sir Arthur Astowne, and many more of the English Commanders that lost themselves in defence of it, would not have been so prodigal of their lives to justify Murderers and Rebels against the English, and that Nation and Government. And that Sir Thomas Armstrong, Sir John Stevens, Treswell, Travers, Wogan, Byron, Ballard, etc. had not undergone the hardship, or the mainfold hazards they did, to maintain the quarrel. And I likewise leave to your Grace's remembrance, how great a Friendship and confidence there was grown, by your powerful influence upon both parties between them and the Irish. Which received not the least diminution before the defection of those that betrayed their trust and his majesty's Interest in Cork, Youghall, Kinsale, and the rest of the strong holds in Munster. Who these were, is known to all parties in that Nation, and you can certify my Lord, they were not Irish nor Catholics. Neither did this occasion lessen the esteem, which those, who by power derived from your Grace, had the principal trust in the Nation. But your Grace, who doubtless did then foresee of what use men of their loyal principles would in future times be to his Majesty, having provided for their safety, dismissed them at a time when many accidents, and much refractoriness concurred to weigh down the scales of his majesty's declining affairs. Yet your Grace dismissed them after such a manner, as shown the Roman Catholics were very sensible of the loss they were to receive by their absence, and the many good services they had jointly performed under your Grace's command.  
I must now forbear to give your Grace any further trouble concerning any shred of this work, which this Writer says, he hath taken to pieces. And to do him right, I think he hath unriped the skirts; but he leaves the Doublet entire. And we are now as wise as we were before, and as far from knowing the true value of the Stuff, or what it is lined with, save that we gather by it that self interest is a rapid Torrent that bears all down before it; and a passion that blinds us into a belief that nothing which advances our ends can be dishonourable, imprudent, or unjust And this makes the Writer to pray in the behalf of the English Interest, that under that covert he or his friends may possess undisturbed, some honest men's Estates in Ireland. But that Nation, whereof he seems to be, have made and for ever will make it their study to preserve their Dominion by following those principles of Honour, and Justice, which have made their Ancestors famous, and have obtained of God for them, the Reslauration of so unparallelled a King without blood, or the miseries of War: and that at a time, when all disbanded Armies of Europe, expected but a call to enrich themselves with their spoils. Yet if the Nation of England should even in their wish remit any part of those principles, the observance whereof was so propitious to them and their Country, doth this Writer conceive they would not consider what set of people they were to introduce, or whom they were to oppress? Would they think it to be an essential part of the interest of England, that Huson the Cobbler (suppose him free of that execrable crime of Regicide) should enjoy six or seven thousand pounds per ann. in Ireland, and that so many families descended from the Ancient English Colony, that had a share in enlarging the Conquests and the fame of England, should be extirpated and forced to beg their bread? Or that three or four men should by clandestine bargains, at despicable rates, acquire titles to the possessions, and pretences of such kind of persons who were conscious to themselves of their incapacity to be countenaneed by the Nation of England, in advancing even by just means an English Interest, and suddenly grow to be Cedars, that were but the underwood of the Forest: while those that maintained this four hundred years, the Interest of the Crown of England, and the English interest in Ireland, are condemned by the inference which this witty Gentleman makes to be cleavers of wood and drawers of water? No, no. That Nation is too noble, and too just to patronise such requests: and they have a horror for such tenets. And your Grace will give me leave to say that those principles of Justice and Loyalty which you have received from your Ancestors, which you have practised yourself, and your Children by their own natural inclinations, and your Grace's example, are imbued with, and which will be conveyed from hand to hand to your posterity, have been, and will be the sole fortress that could or may defend your family from the wrath or a more suspicious Master, than now you have the happiness to serve. Pawns and pledges in England, alas, are but a Cobweb-wrought-defence for a person whom so great a Monarch would ruin. He that holds the hearts of Princes in his hands, can best and will protect those that are faithful to his Vicegerent on Earth, how suspicious soever he may be, so they make it their next care to be Just to their Neighbours, and redeem them from oppression, if they have power.  
As to those Texts of Scriptures, when it shall be made appear to me, that they are miscited, misconstered or misapplied, no humane respect shall make me oppugn truth: and the same obligation is upon me not to desert it.  
My Lord, These are the brief Animadversions, I thought fit, to give at this time on the Irish Colours Displayed: such as indeed my other, although little and private, yet necessary distractions, gave me the opportunity to perfect; and which your Grace's most weighty, manifold and public may afford you the leisure to peruse: having nevertheless by me, however yet unperfected, a more ample and more exact reply to all the particulars of that seditious, unchristian and very unreasonable piece. Wherein I take notice of his Motto; his pretence; his epithets of bold and wise, wherewith he would flatter me; his great advantage; justice of his case; his Ink or black, and the Crimson colour he would make ours; the Pamphlet; his difficulty to find the matter of it, and the easiness to answer; his brass penny in a heap of rubbish; his labour to put out your eyes and your judgement too, by endeavouring to persuade the matter of my letter could be hardly felt in your hand; his little game; his planets and chaffering vein; his unhappy engrafting such numbers of old English Families upon the Irish stock and Interest; his imposing on and abusing of Spencer's View; his next Paragraph after, of Spanish Papists; his displeasure at our stickling one for another, desiring justice according to the fundamental laws of both Kingdoms, and his Majesty's gracious Promises and Concessions; and yet his inconsequence in the 15. page of his Answer, in stickling himself for all his own gang, without exception of any, and in a cause of manifest in justice, even against all laws both divine and humane; his something more; his scribbling; his cogging and clawing, and unfortunate proofs thereof, your constant believers, your passionate sticklers, etc. his imposture with charging me to have threatened your failing would lessen your dependencies, &c. his malicious application of my example of Joseph, even against his own knowledge, and the whole design and express tenor of my Letter in the beginning, prosecution and ending of it; his gross, wilful and affected ignorance (or dissimulation rather) of not knowing how the Irish came to be your brethren upon any other kindred: his minding you of your Ancestors and your own unshaken loyalty to the Crown of England, and of your constancy to the old Protestant Religion, so impertinent to the end he drove at; his own servile flatteries; his unbelieved affections to, or confidence in you; his love to his mistress; the forced or feigned smiles he would attribute to you; and the sullen aching jealousies of himself and his party; those passages, without being too much envied and some thing feared, etc. a testimony and a pawn of your Family's Loyalty, etc. how much the English Nation might be estranged from you by your favour to the Irish, etc. suddenly either forgiven in heaven, or forgotten upon earth; his bold slander; his Ravilliack and perhaps half a dozen Jesuits, and perhaps half a dozen more with Cromwell and Ireton, and his outward compliance, etc. his Birds, Flies and bare intentions; his unreasonable difference twixt standing on Articles, and Claiming his majesty's Grace held forth in the Act of Indemnity; his not questioning but the same reasons which then induced His Majesty to grant it them and deny it us, continue still, and will do so to both our Posterities; his Long Parliament's, and the following tyrannous Powers quarrel pursued against the Irish; his not allowing these had fought so long (that is, since the peace made with your Grace) for the King; his having never heard, and his saying, that none can believe, the overpowering them with multitudes, and he must mean then (if he speak to purpose) when the last towns and places of Ireland were given up: his quitting the field, and running away, and giving up the quarrel, in the next paragraph 14. page of his book, where, in effect, he not only acknowledges no answer given by him to my letter; but in plain terms tells your Grace so much, that for matter of our Articles in Forty eight, which (saith he) the writer of that Letter presses to be observed, that of Transplansplantation, Corporations, & the disposal of the Irish lands, &c they are particulars he will not meddle with; and yet these are all the particulars of that Letter, he would seem otherwise, or at least was concerned to Answer; his reflection after this, on that passage of mine which relates to the English Army in England, as then composed; and his confidence in them; his other-shred, or will couched threaten; his other truth, which yet hath nothing more than untruth; his evil Counsel, immediately following; his declining the parallel, and his flat refusing to answer at the weapon of holy Scripture (although he brags it might be easily done) or try the justice of our quarrel thereby; which manifestly convinces him to have little of an English Protestant, or indeed a Christian in him, being he withal undertakes the patronage of such a cause, or the defence of it in point of Piety and Justice, which a little before, that is, in his 15. page, he obliges himself unto; Lastly, the impertinency of his whole discourse, if considered as an answer, having not answered any one argument of all my Letter; not even, with satisfaction to the Reader, any one of those very immaterial passages he singled out; but above all, the close and far yet more dangerous design this Gentleman drives, (under that which is more overt in his paper) to create new troubles to our Gracious King, to involve his subjects in bloody confusions again, and even to destroy his Sacred Majesty at last by ruining first, and for ever, those that have for so many years, and do yet suffer for him. My Lord, of all these and what ever else is regardable in his Answer, I take a more particular and more exact notice in some papers, I have by me, than I can here; because my other occasions will not yet serve me to finish them as I would; nor yours (I suppose) your Grace to read them at this time.  
However, my Lord, that real and dutiful affection, which penned my former Letter, gives in the mean time this. And withal craves your pardon; if I mind you here, those truly sage, divine precepts, which this little politic spirit of earth seemed not to be versed in, or at least either contemns or neglects. For indeed my Lord he appears to me all along his writing, of the number of those who see heaven, and all the hopes of the other life, as Mathematicians make us behold in a dark Chamber, whatsoever passeth abroad, through a little cranny, in such a manner, that all things we see, appear like shadows and landscapes turned topsy-turvy. Verily, I take this Gentleman to be abused so by himself. And that after he hath stopped up all the Windows and accesses to heavenly rays, he hath made a little hole for the Moon, and all the blessings of the other life have seemed very slender to his distrustful spirit: and that he hath put on a resolution to make a fortune at what price soever, and to build on earth like Cain, after he hath almost renounced the hopes of heaven. Behold, the reason why, with so little regret or shame, he adventures to lay maxims before you, that suppose to hold on a course in all affairs and Governments of the world, which may be crafty, captious, worldly, unjust, yea cruel too, and inhuman (when it is for their interest) and a course (however) which may be always independent of divine laws, if not for some popular appearance  
But, my Lord, the proofs you have constantly given of your chaste apprehensions of a God, and a Providence ruling the Universe, of a strong virtue, and a resolution firm, unchangeable therein, both in your prosperous fortune, as well now as heretofore, and in that condition, which hath been so long most adverse, and hath tried you like gold in the Furnace, together with your two great successive Masters on earth (whom you have served most faithfully in all changes, and in obedience to that heavenly One, whom all Servants and Masters too must revere) make all that know you well, be very confident this Enchanter hath laboured in vain to charm you. And me no less, That you had rather take your maxims, and measures, and rules, and examples of Government from the Oracles of God, from the equity of the Laws, from the dictates of your own severe Conscience, and from the model of so many great, honourable and holy Statesmen, who flourished in the succession of all Ages, and governed successfully their people, then from the vain illusions and wicked policy of a Machiavelli or Achitophel, or from the diastrous undertake, and sad Catastrophe, of either themselves, or of those they tutored.  
Never was there a more refined wit than Achitophel, of whom the Scripture said, Consilium Achitophel, quasi si quis consuleret Deum, That men consulted with him as with a God: Yet never was there any more unhappy in his practice. For having disposed of the affairs of the Kingdom, and those of his own house, there remaining none to be provided for but his own person, he took a halter, and hanged himself, because they approved not one of his Counsels. Nor ever was any more unhappy than Machiavelli in all his erterprises, notwithstanding his great list of refined precepts. And for those two unfortunate Princes, that were Scholars or patterns to them, Absalon, and Duke Valentinois (besides hundreds more that would not be wise by their fate) we know what end they had. Besides, my Lord, you consider it hath been the judgemet, near two thousand years ago, even of that very great Politician Thucydides, and ever since a general observation, as it is to day, of all well understanding men, that those curious wits, despoiled of the fear of God, have always been most turbulent and unhappy in the manage both of their own affairs and the public also: As on the contrary, those who had not so much knowledge and invention, but pursued the general instinct of God, have held their Estates better governed in simplicity, more prosperous in the ignorance of evil, and much more in the lasting of their felicity.  
And your own reading can furnish you with sufficient proofs, that ordinarily the most unhappy among States have been those, who have made the greatest show of knowledge, to deceive under humane Policy. That is it which overthrew the Commonwealth of the Athenians. That which ruined the house of Jeroboam, who, revolting against his Prince, having raised a State by ambition, and a Religion out of fantasy, having seen the Altas crack with the horror of his crimes, and his heart still remaining more obdurate than stone, in the end he is so chastised by the hand of God, that there was not left so much as one handful of dust of his house upon the face of the earth. Domus Jeroboam eversa est & deleta de supersicie terrae. And even that which undid the very first King of Gods own election. For this unfortunate Prince, while he makes show punctually to obey the Law of God, under the direction of Samuel, but afterwards learns to become cunning, envious, faithless, plotting designs, consulting Pythonesses, and seeking in all points his own petty interests: poor David (whose life this King judged, without any other cause but envy, incompatible with his own estate) dismounts him, using no other policy, but that of making himself an honest man  
Holy Scripture, and other Monuments of latter and former times, can further tell your Grace, that considering so many other Politicians, who made profession to refine all the world, who attempted to practice, according to their own vain Ideas, either you have seen but the first station of their plastered felicity, or have ever found great labyrinths, horrible confusions, fortunes little lasting, dejection in their posterity, hatred, and the execration of Ages.  
And that you may without enquiry or trouble to your thoughts behold with a ready eye, how there is no policy powerful against God, and how he surpriseth the most subtle, making snares of their greatest cunning to captive them, see (my Lord) in the book of Hester, that wicked Aman, the great Favourite of Assuerus, ●…ho practised, as our Gentleman doth, the ruin of the Hebrews, who prevailed so far, as to have the lots cast, and▪ warrants signed, and proclamation made thereof in Sushan, and a day prefixed for the general slaughter of that Nation, young and old, men, women, and children, and Courriers dispatched to all Provinces of the Empire, to command the execution, while these forlorn people, dispersed as they were then among strangers, moved heaven and earth to pity with their yell, because they saw not how the Decree was avoidable; see this wicked Aman resolved on so horrid an act as was the destruction of so many millions, and resolved upon it only to be revenged on Mordecai that saved the King from murder, and, after this, to raise himself with the wealth of the destroyed (all which the King bestowed upon him at the same time.) See this Politician of Hell, yea notwithstanding all his power and favour, ruined in a moment, yea within three days after the Decree published, and ruined by this very Mordecai, a contemptible worm of the earth, till then, in Amans apprehension. See presently a countermand of the bloody Edicts; Aman forced to lead Mordecai's horse, and cry him in the streets of Susan the greatest Lord of the Empire, next the King; and himself next day after raised indeed, but on a gibbet of fifty cubits high, to humble him for ever, by the most ignominious death could be: while the Jews on that very day, by him designed for utter destruction, saw themselves masters, and (even by the King's commandment to all his Lieutenants and other Subjects) executioners, in the Kings own Court Susan, of the ten sons of their great enemy, and of eight hundred more, two days continually; and in other Provinces, throughout the Empire, of threescore and fifteen thousand men, who had before conspired against them with Aman.  
Besides this, my Lord, see one example more very pertinent in the book of Exodus. Behold Pharaoh turned ungrateful, and forgetful of all the obligations laid by Joseph on him. See this Pharaoh becoming crafty, and thinking by ruinating the Israelits his Sceptre is throughly established. But see withal how God surpriseth him in his subtlety, and makes him know the oppression of this poor people is the instrument of his ruin. A little child, which lieth floating on the waters of Nilus in a cradle of bulrushes, as a worm hidden in straw, and whose afflicted mother measureth his tomb with her eyes in every billow of this faithless element, is delivered from peril by the very blood of Pharaoh, to turn the Diadem of Pharaoh into dust, and bury him with all his Nobles, and an army of two hundred thousand men with him, as Josephus writes, all inflamed in a gulf of the red Sea.  
But, my Lord, I have almost forgot myself, being transported on this subject, whereon the temerity of my Answerer hath engaged me to dilate: not that I would instruct your Grace by these examples of Gods confounding evil Counsels, whom I know to need no such antidotes against the poison of this Writer, but that I might convince, or confound him.  
I know your Grace desires rather I should mind yourself those Maxims, or Precepts, and Examples too, that may confirm you in a resolution to be throughly virtuous, to be exactly just and benignly merciful (being Justice and Mercy are the Virtues, above all others, must be most proper to your great charge:) then such as fortify against the Vices opposite, from which you are by Nature and Education wholly estranged.  
My Lord, I shall then, to that purpose, call to your memory, in the first place, three passages of holy Scripture. The first is a Maxim of the ho●y Ghost, by the mouth of the wisest King, or man, amongst the children of men; and you may read it in the sixteenth Chapter of Solomon's Proverbs. Justitia firmatur solium. It is an abomination to Kings to commit wickedness, for the throne is established by righteousness. My Lord, even that very Throne, for which you have undergone so many labours, hardships and hazards these twenty years past, & for the fixing of which, you are now to undertake the greatest charge that can be laid upon you, and the most difficult to perform will be established by doing justice. The second is an admonition of the same Holy Spirit (even to yourself) by the month of Jesus the Son of Syrach. Noli quaerere fieri judex nisi justitia valeas irrumpere iniquitatem: ne forte extimescas faciem potentis, & p●nas scanned lum in aequitate tua Ecclesiastic. 7. Seek not to be judge, if you have not the power to break thorough all iniquity: lest any time you fear the person of the Mighty, and lay a stumbling-block in the way of your uprightness. I confess, my Lord, this Text imports a seeking, and that according the literal rigour of that first word, it is only against such; and therefore, insomuch, not properly applicable to your Grace. But you know, my Lord, as well, by natural reason, as by forty clear passages of Holy Bible, the duty of doing justice is nothing less incumbent on Judges or Governors, that by injunction or command, they undergo their charge: it being evident that none may tie our conscience to act unrighteously, and that contrariwise by that very command to accept the charge, the obligation to be just is the greater, if this may admit of any increase. Which is the reason I aver the wise man speaks, even in this very passage, directly to your Grace, advising you either to have sufficient power and a virtuous constant resolution to beat down, trample under foot all obstacles, even that regard of the Powerful or Mighty, which might otherwise hinder you from doing justice indifferently to all persons in your great charge: or certainly to lay down (at his Majesty's feet) your Commission, lest otherwise it might be a scandal to you, an occasion to lose the favour of Heaven, and the repute you have hitherto preserved so entire on earth, as hereditary to your Noble House & Family. And yet I allege not this passage, as having the least fear of your being hereafter unjust, or the least hopes that any man living is so fit for that charge as yourself, under our gracious Sovereign, in the present conjuncture, nor so desired of all the different parties in that Nation; but that I would mind you of it as very useful against this man of sin, who would have you buoy up one Interest wholly, that is the strong and prevalent, and sink utterly the other, against all Divine and Humane Laws. The third passage, and very consequent to this, is a question, which it seems to me, I hear God himself demanding of you here, by his afflicted Prophet, Job 40. c. Si habes brachium sicut Deus? & voce simili tonas? Have you the arm of God? or can you thunder with a voice like his? My Lord, if this Arm, and this Voice, has been ever yet necessary to any man going to command a Country of iron and ire, a people that have not these many years distinguished betwixt Might and Right, so many different parties, and as opposite one to another in their demands and their interests, as East and West, the South and North are, it must be to your Grace. And therefore, my good Lord, it is but your duty to beg of God in humble prayer, that he will give you both, in that proportion and respect any mortal can, and one of your Place ought to have them, to overcome so many difficulties and oppositions which lie before you.  
In the next place, my Lord, I shall mind your Grace of what you know yourself already, That you shall behold under your Government a very great number of simple, poor, innocent, and most afflicted creatures, if any such be in the whole world. And that you are to think that God hath principally created you, and hitherto preserved you amidst so many dangers, and now at last inspired our gracious King to send you, for them. And therefore that your greatest care must be to open to them your heart with an amorous compassion, extend to them the bowels of your charity, stretch out affectionately to them your helpful hands take their requests, lend ear to their cries, cause their affairs to be speedily dispatched, not drawing them along in delays which may devour them, strengthen your arm against those that oppress them, redeem the prey out of the Lion's throat, and the Harpie's talons.  
For this it is, my Lord, that Kings, Princes, States and Governors are made. To actions of this kind it is, that God promiseth all the blessings of Heaven, and admirations of earth. For this sort of processes are Crowns of Glory prepared. By this means a man diveth into the bottom of the heart, and good opinion of people. This is the cause that one hath so many souls and lives at command, as there are men, who the more sweetly breath air by the liberality wherewith they are obliged.  
And believe it, my Lord, your Greatness, before God, will not be to multiply titles of Honour and Command (which yet have followed you still, as the shadow doth the body, and were most deservedly and most justly put upon you by His most Sacred Majesty that now is, and by his Father of glorious memory) nor will be to cover the earth with Armies, and make rivers of blood, and to raise up mountains of dead bodies; but to do justice to a poor Orphan, to wipe away the tears of a forlorn Widow, to steep in Oil (as the Scripture speaketh) the yoke of people which live on gall and wormwood, who sigh under necessities almost unsupportable to the most savage, who daily charge ears with complaints & altars with vows for their deliverance, & who cry for your Grace at this time as the Fathers of the old Testament did for the Messiah, or as the unborn children of that very Nation are said in Venerable Bede, to have done 1200. years ago, to Him that redeemed them, immediately after, from the slavery of Heathenism, and power of Devils.  
But when shall we expect that deliverance, if not now? Now that our good King is restored by so many miracles and wonders; now that he is established by all that may concur to fix his Throne; now that he is so well disposed to justice, and to mercy both (as he hath ever been) now that he hath near his person a Council so sage, a Parliament so zealous for the public good, so many honourable men endowed with so sincere intentions; and now that your Grace is (the second or third time) Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and ready to part hence to your charge, when may we reasonably expect the comfort of that oppressed people, if not at this hour, when miseries are eminent, clamours piercing, and dispositions very good? Alas! my Lord, if there be any thing in the world, wherein you may be seen to oblige the present, and replenish future times with admiration of your virtues, it is in effecting this, for which Heaven is in expectation and the hands of a million of poor disconsolate souls are daily lifted to God.  
Remember, my Lord, that such, and so many great Governors, for not having had any other aim in charges, but the accommodation of their own affairs, have passed away like phantasms, leaving nought here behind them but ordure, nor bearing any thing with them into the other world but crimes And that they have found that the sold of the wounded have cried to Heaven against them, and that God hath not let it pass without revenge. Anima vulneratorum clamavit ad Dominum, & Deus inultam abire non patitur, as holy Job speaketh in the 24th. chapter, where he at large explicateth both the calamity of the poor, and the chastisement of the rich that oppress them.  
Consider, on the other side, that all those who have constantly addicted themselves to the maintenance of Justice, and the consolation of afflicted persons, besides the Crowns which they enjoy in Heaven, live gloriously in the memory of men. Their mouths, which are opened for justice, after they are shut up as Temples, are truly worthy to have Lilies and Roses strewed on the Marble which encloseth them; and that their posterity also may reap the good odour of their noble Ancestors, which hath made it march with upreared head before the face of the people.  
In the last place, my Lord, notwithstanding the Answerer's quarrel against holy Scripture, to direct State-affairs, and fortify or clear disputes in matters of public Justice (which is the most unreasonable saying could proceed from a Christian; since if they be of any use at all, they must be in State-affairs most of all others) I most humbly and most earnestly recommend this Book of books to your Grace, whereby to guide yourself always in your most important determinations of State, for what may relate to right and the law of God. Look upon it as the pillar of clouds and flames, which conducted the army of the living God. There it is where you shall learn true maxims of State, scored out with most vigorous reflections of the Wisdom of God: and where you shall trample under foot, with a generous contempt, so many illusions, which wretched souls seek for in the mouth of Sorcerers. Read the book of Wisdom, the Prophets, the book of holy Job, and the Divine Psalms of the King, chosen out according to God's own heart. Consider the stream of so many Histories, written in this Theatre of wonders, which are characters of fire, wherewith the divine Providence is pleased to be figured to mortal eyes, that we may learn the punishment of crimes and the crowns of virtue.  
Represent unto yourself often in your idaeae's, those great Statesmen, who have flourished in the course of all ages: and derive light and fire from their examples, to illuminate and inflame you in the self same list. Behold him who hath been refined above all others in the School of God, I mean Moses. Who hath been more humble in refusing charges, more obedient in accepting them, more faithful in exercising, more industrious in executing the commandments of God, more vigilant in government of the people, more severe in correction of vices, more patiented in sufferance of the infirmities of Subjects, and more zealous in the cordial love he bore to the whole world?  
With these gifts he became the God of Monarches, he ruined the State of his enemies, he unloosed the chains of an infinite number of slaves, he opened Seas, he manured wildernesses, he marched in the front of fix hundred thousand men at arms, he lived laborious amongst Shepherds, chaste in the Court of Kings, temperate in government, a companion of Angels in his retirement, and as it were a cabinet-friend of God, having continually heaven for object, and all greatness in contempt. He had blotted out all that was man in him, by the purity of a conversation wholly celestial. The flesh was in him in such subjection, and the spirit in such Empire, that (as Ambrose speaks, in his book of Cain and Abel) he merited the name of God, in the resemblance of whom he was transformed by the superabundance of his virtues.  
Behold that great Disciple of Moses, Josue. What piety in the service of the Omnipotent, what sweetness in government, what greatness of spirit in noble erterprises, what patience in difficulties, what prudence in direction, what dispatch in expeditions? It is no wonder if in the fight of these eminent qualities, Walls and Cities fell, Giants waxed pale, Rivers retired back, the Sun stood still, and one and thirty Kings underwent the yoke.  
Behold Samuel, the Father, Master, and Judge of two Kings, the Doctor of Prophets, the Sanctuary of the poor, the pillar of the Church. Is it not a magnificent spectacle to see him go out of charge, after so long a Government, and so great a diversity of Affairs, with a heart so untainted, and hands undefiled, as if he had perpetually conversed with Angels? Is it not a most heroical action, which he did in the first of Kings, when after the election of Saul, having voluntarily resigned his Dignity, he shown himself with upreard head in the midst of the people, and gave liberty to all the world, from the least to the greatest, to complain and make information against him, before the King newly chosen? If it may be found that in his Magistracy, he ever did the least wrong to any man, he is there ready to afford all satisfaction, that may be thought fit. But as he had lived most innocently, at this word was lifted up a loud cry, proceeding from a general consent of the people, which highly proclaimed the integrity of his justice. Is not this a praise of more value than millions of Gold and Empires? But above all reflect often on the Wisdom of God Incarnate Jesus Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, as the Prime model of all Statesmen, whom the Prophet Esay hath exactly represented in the eleventh Chapter of his Prophecy; where he figureth the Redeemer unto us in the quality of a Judge, to serve for instruction and example to all posterity.  
First, for as much as concerneth his perfections, he gave him seven sorts of spirits very consonant to a true Politician; the spirit of Wisdom, and Understanding, the spirit of Counsel, and Strength, the spirit of Science, and Piety, and the spirit of the Fear of God, wherewith he was wholly replenished. Then, describing the manner of his proceeding, saith, He shall not judge according to humane appearances, by the inconsiderate view of carnal eyes, and the relation of a rash tongue; but he shall do justice to the poor, and fortify himself with all kind of vigour, for the defence of so many gentle souls, as are oppressed in the world. To this purpose he shall strike the earth with the words of his mouth, using his tongue as a rod of correction, and shall overthrow the wicked with the breath of his lips. Justice shall be so familiar to him, that he shall make use of it as a girdle of honour, or a rich baudrike, which brave Captains wear. The effects of his Government shall be so eminent, that under his reign the Wolf shall be seen to cohabit with the Lamb, the Leopard with the Goat, the Calf with the Lion, and little Children to play with Basilisks and Aspics. Willing in these Allegories to signify how this divine Governor should mollify the most savage humours, and reduce them to the temper of reason.  
I conclude here, my Lord, wishing it may be so in Ireland under your Government. That you may imitate this great Exemplar to Judges. That you may be another Samuel, a Joshua, and a Moses to the people under your charge. That in particular you may (in the present conjuncture) have the charity and compassion of Moses for them all; since you know them (very near) all, one way or other, guilty transgressors, as having either made, or followed, or adored the Gods of Gold. And (therefore) that, without losing this last and best opportunity of your departure hence, which now is drawing on so near, your Grace may be pleased to speak your strongest intercession for them all, to his Majesty, and speak it with that love, zeal and fervour Moses did for his beloved Israelites to God (in the two and thirtieth of Exodus) when they had fallen into the most grievous rebellion imaginable. And that you may be pleased to speak that intercession, even in the very words of this great Prophetical Commander, this Familiar of God. Either forgive them now their sin, or if not, then (I beseech thee) blot me out of thy book which thou hast written. Aut dimitte eye hanc noxam: aut deal me de libro tuo quem scripsisti. Wherein (my Lord) prevailing (as I doubt not you will) and obtaining this general Pardon from the most gracious, indulgent, merciful Prince on earth, and affording effectually the benefit thereof to all the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, and to so many other different parties and interests in that Kingdom, without distinction, without prejudice to the rights of any of all (according to that which might be justly claimed by them from such an Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, and, in pursuance thereof, from the equity of the Laws, and from his Majesties other gracious Concessions in Articles of Peace) you will certainly give the most hopeful beginning may be to your other glorious undertake hereafter: as at present evict this confession from all the world, that you have deafened your ears to the Enchanter of injustice, and that, ever constant to yourself, you remember perpetually and follow this more Christian, more humane precept of an Apostle, Vince in bono malum. Which is the vow for you of  
My Lord, Your Grace's most humble, most faithful, and most obedient Servant P. W.